SocialD

Un. Fucking. Believable! Although, I'm not sure why this surprises me. What a fucking dumpster fire! Did you send AFRC/CV an e-mail saying thanks for making your retirement decision easy? Best of luck in the next chapter.

I LOL'd I guess I could have pointed to this when my CC asked if I had any interest in leadership above FLT/CC , and I actually laughed out loud. The court system in the military is the epitome of shoot, then aim! Then even when proven innocent, they may put out a retraction at the bottom left of the bag page of the base newsletter...career still ruined. In my last aircraft upgrade, I had a sim partner (another FO) that left a fast track in the Navy (20+ years) because 3 of 5 of his buddies were fired for shit that was completely out of their control...mostly within a year or so of assuming command. Right now the rest of his buddies are probably on ship somewhere, dodging sexual assault cases and hoping to make it through the next assignment to get that bird/star....meanwhile he just finished another Rome layover after having 2 weeks without going to work.

Might as well. You have chicks out there trying to use Tinder as a legit dating site! "...if you're just looking to hook up, swipe left!" Go to match if you're not down!

--Do you have coords for that? I don't have any of those points in my system. Also, unable for gas. --Sigh, cleared direct... I may be off on this, but I don't think MTF is an airline guy. Though he may still have to "sell insurance" if the economy tanks.

Don't worry, the network will be down enough...

If not, you'll likely be promoted to Major ASAP after transferring into the ANG. This can depend on the state as some states make all their Captains ROPMA, which I will never understand...talk about fucking your people over.

Huggy, were those orders exempt from your 5 year USERRA clock? My last two deployments (TSP...ie NOT contingency orders), we got to pick between the blue pill or red pill. Blue pill = USERRA exemption, but no early retirement credit. Red pill = NOT USERRA exempt, but you get early retirement credit. No worries though, there is a bill being proposed to change the blue pill to allow for early retirement credit, which they've been saying for the 4 years. So...checks in the mail!

WWHU2D?

T-0/1/2/3 are great and all, but people up the chain have to actually be willing to waive it. On a recent "deployment" we sent up multiple reasonable waiver requests. All but one was denied by our parent command over 4 countries away. Bottom line, someone in the chain has to be willing to assume some risk (even if it is minuscule), which in our case, they clearly were not. I guess you can't be having those potential black marks on your way up the chain.

This is pretty much my plan of attack with my GTC. I don't put anything on it that isn't reimbursable. If it's not paid, I just let it ride, and attach any late fees to the voucher. Eventually you will show up on someones list and questions will be asked. It usually gets fixed pretty quickly. No fuckin way I'm paying 3k of my own money because of their incompetence. So now I have a GTC that is cutoff and late fees are piling up (which I just add to my voucher). Funny part is finance tried threatening me by saying I wouldn't be able to go TDY since my GTC was about to be cutoff.

Our finance cringes every time our OG calls or shows up at the office. He's pretty much 100% on reg-offs vs our finance and they can't stand it. I can't even imagine their response if this were to happen.

I agree that you're a jackass if you brag to the WG/CC about not owning a uniform, especially if you get a stipend. I also agree that it's severe jackassery to make you ALL your people come in for an inspection because of one dude. I'm going on 17+ years and aside from my mess dress (which was paid for with a one time stipend), I've never paid for a uniform in my life. I've never owned a set of ABUs and will likely never own a set of OCPs, unless they issue me a set.

A major defense contractor did little (without serious amounts of cash) to help fix their ugly baby???? This is my shocked face... So glad we still use LOX.

I'll be very surprised if Tricare is still there when I hit 60 (part timer retirement)...at least in anywhere near it's current form. I'm fairly confident the pension will be there, although they may have long stopped yearly COLAs by the time I get there. Like social security, when I run my retirement numbers, I assume it wont be there. If they happen to be there, all the better.

For the guys looking to get out of AD...If the squadron requires more than 4-5 days/month, look elsewhere. It seems like no big deal now, but when you grow up and get a real job (even an airline gig), anything more than 5 days/month is ridiculous. IMHO, 7 days/month is an unreasonable and unsustainable expectation. Of course, I'm not talking about TDY...just month-to-month expectations.

This is my shocked face at the shoot, then aim mentality the military always takes in these cases. Don't worry, if it turns out to be unfounded, they'll be sure to print the retraction on the bottom right corner of the back page of the AF times...and his career will still be ruined.

Depends upon the state. I know a Lt Col in another state that did not do SOS or ACSC (golf clap!)... Then there is my state, which puts you down as a DNP if you haven't done ACSC. However, we have had people ROPMA without it, so there's that. It can get really muddy when the state doesn't recognize the federal promotion...or something like that. Another squadron in the state had this happen to a pilot. From second hand info, he was paid as an O5 but had to wear O4 rank (unless on title 10, lol). If true, that's what I call 2 birds, one stone! Like 2020 said, the difference is ballwash, or about $400/month for me. Due to my enlisted time, even if I promote right away (not likely due to control grade issues), I'd have to stay an extra 2.5 years to retire with a full Lt Col retirement. Given how quickly the situation is deteriorating in the military, I have zero intention of staying in a day past 20, so it's really not worth it to me. Edit: Just opened my email and see my GTC was shut off for non-payment...from a voucher I signed quite a while ago. Lol, guess I can't go TDY anymore. The AF is so fucked! The donut of misery shows ~1,000 days until retirement.

All because of some ridiculous internet outcry...what a fucking joke! A great case of, if you can't do something valuable, do some things visible. Dude will look back on this and realize he is far better off not being a part of this toxic, bullshit laden sinking ship. Retirement can't get here fast enough.

In Fresno?

By the book, it's long enough by 1 foot...in practice, it doesn't always work. I'm just saying that we likely could have paid for chutes many times over with the money spent on losses/repairs. In our airspace, we're almost always out of a one-to-one, with a chute we'd like have 1 or 2 options. Our home airport has 2 runways but only one long enough, so we're always single runway ops (read: carrying extra gas/lost training). A chute would allow us to use the other runway and drop our bingos to give us more training time in the airspace. Moot point now, but it seems pretty short sighted by the AF to not buy the system, when they're already making them for so many other countries.

Man, they're still attacking that 1,500 hour requirement. In 2012 I was a first year regional guy and my base pay was $19,000 ($21/hr). At the same airline, it's now $37,000 ($41/hr) + $17,500 if you stay a year (somewhat pro-rated if you leave early). If nothing else this rule has forced the regionals to pay a basic living wage. This is a good thing...let's hope the military is not successful in killing this requirement.

All that is required for a part timer to get a good year is 50 points (you get 15 for just being in). This is exactly what I would do if I were in my final year and AFRC/ANG tried to play these "annual" mickey mouse games of a blanket stop loss. A while back, this used to be a fairly common practice with the soon to be retired guys. No one saw it as douchery, just standard and expected. I expect that this will become a fairly common tactic once again. With the addition of the AD guys into the squadron (and their added sortie requirements), it will likely be welcomed by scheduling as we can barely get guys RAP as it is. Having said that, I wouldn't recommend the "Braveheart" approach unless you really have leadership that deserves it. LOL. EDIT: Remembering JADEDs posts a few pages back, this is what I would do if I were him.

Glad the pilots ok. How many jets have we run off the end in situations like this and high speed aborts? How many have been lost because there were no runways long enough within gliding distance? Off the top of my mind I can think of 6 or 7 losses. ...what would have been the cost of having/maintaining chutes like so many foreign buyers have?

RVs are awesome planes and I had the order form filled out for an RV-7. However, after talking with quite a few builders I decided to hold off, maybe down the road. Orbit gave a pretty good description above about the various RVs. I'll add that I really wanted the RV-9 but after lots of research figured you're much better off with the RV-7. They're pretty close to the same plane, but the 7 is aerobatic. This is huge for resale value! If you like the Kitfox, you have got to check out this guys videos. His day job deals with filming/expensive cameras, plus he lives near a bunch of BLM land, which means he can land anywhere can make awesome videos. Also, check out the Rans S-7 or S-20 if you're interested in an alternative to the Kitfox. I've flown with a few Captains recently that have built the S-7 and they love them. I've flown both, they are a blast to fly and they're essentially the same plane, but the 7 is tandem and the 20 is side-by-side. I ended up going with the Rans S-21 and my wing kit is showing up to my garage in a few hours. I don't really care to fly aerobatics in an aircraft that doesn't have an ejection seat, and would rather bounce around the local dirt strips, with the occasional weekend trip. It's relatively new, but much of his stuff is being reused from other kits he has designed. It's STOL-like but will cruise around 155mph @ 75% with a 180hp motor. For me the build time/complexity was a huge factor, and that's another place this plane excels. Given that it's all aluminum (CNC milled parts...read very little drilling/deburring) and built mostly with blind rivets, they're forecasting 500 hours, not including paint. Based on a few bloggers that have already started their wings, that seems fairly accurate. On top of that, there are very few times where you need another person there to help you, which is key since I live by myself and don't want to have to always bribe my buddies to buck rivets for me. Here is one that is already built. It's hard to tell in the pic, but the doors and roof are all lexan...great for visibility. Cargo space is pretty awesome and is easy to access due to the large door and seat that fold down quite a bit.

PM sent. Moving this to GA thread.